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Nancy Pelosi and leadership in the age of GIFs

President Donald Trump turns to House speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., as he delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence watches, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

President Trump said more than 5,200 words during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Nancy Pelosi didn’t say a one.

But with an arched eyebrow, a cocked head and extended hand clap dripping with shade, the Speaker of the House said more in her wordless response to Trump that ricocheted around the Internet this week than any public speech, hallway interview or Sunday talk show appearance might ever reveal.

Call it leadership in the age of the GIF.

At a time when officials’ every public move is captured on video, passed around in brief viral tweets and texts and a segmented, distracted public makes it impossible to break through the noise, a quick, visual meme-worthy moment has become one of the most powerful -- if risky -- ways for leaders to burnish their image and send a message, even if an unintentional one.

“Folks aren’t spending more than a couple seconds on any piece of content, so things have to be visual -- by definition,” said Adam Shapiro, a principal in the digital strategy group at Sard Verbinnen & Co who has worked on political campaigns at several digital agencies. “There are shorter and shorter attention spans. So you have to be visual.”

Pelosi was certainly that. She glared down at papers in front of her on the dais, shuffling them and pursing her lips. She clapped downward toward the U.S. president in a gesture that sent the Internet ablaze with comparisons to a disappointed mother reprimanding a wayward child. She appeared to smirk when Trump glanced over his shoulder, a look some considered disrespectful or rude but others cheered as a physical manifestation of the politely cutting Southernism “bless your heart.”

That split-screen response makes such body language powerful -- but risky -- for any leader in a meme-hungry social media world.

“It’s like the Zapruder film -- everyone’s watching it from 20 angles,” said Jeff Davenport, an executive speaker coach and body language expert who works for the presentation firm Duarte. “I’ve watched [the Pelosi clap video] like 20 times now. It’s become like a Rorschach test -- people see what they want to read into it.”

That can backfire on political leaders. “There’s a base, but there’s a persuadable middle that you’re trying to influence or reach out to when you create a certain imagery,” Shapiro said.

And it can set an unsustainable bar: Someday, Pelosi-the-clapbacking-shade-queen could fumble a negotiation or overplay her hand. “It can create blowback if you don’t live up to the imagery that you create,” he said.

Yet it can also help a narrative stick to a leader’s image and make them seem more authentic. Pelosi’s State of the Union scene stealer didn’t stand on its own. It followed a series of moments since the 2018 midterm election won her back the House -- her “don’t characterize the strength that I bring" comment, the post-Oval Office sunglasses meme, the unmitigated (if temporary) win she scored when the shutdown ended without funding for Trump’s border wall.

Such episodes have painted her as the Capital’s Democratic doyenne who worked the “feisty grandma” image in her favor, going toe-to-toe with Trump’s bluster while talking about not engaging in a “tinkle contest with a skunk.” For those who wanted to see it that way, Pelosi’s Tuesday night gestures were a logical, tailor-made-for-Twitter coda.

“It can be used like theater -- the human faces and gestures,” said Gina Barnett, who coaches executives and TED speakers for the stage and has written a book about body language and communication. Barnett notes that in the now famous moment, Pelosi’s "face is different from her hands. While her hands are clapping, her facial expression is her signal, which is ‘I don’t buy your message.’ " (Pelosi made the remark after Trump said “we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good.”)

Meanwhile, body language alone can also be powerful by making the moment seem more credible, experts said.

“Memes, by definition, are people’s diverse takes on an image. They allow [the audience] to have some of their own personal input, and that provides authenticity," Shapiro said. Without words, viewers are even more able to read their own interpretation into the moment. “It makes it even more compatible with your viewpoints.”

Pelosi said on Wednesday that her now infamous gesture was actually not meant to be sarcastic.

“Look at what I was applauding,” she told reporters Wednesday, referring to Trump’s call for bipartisanship. "I wanted him to know that was a very welcome message.”

And People reported that Doug Mills, the New York Times photographer who took the shot and was watching the two leaders closely, said he saw it as genuine.

"I saw it as her responding to the call for common ground and saying to him, ‘Okay, this is on you. It starts with you. I’m clapping to you. You’re saying it, but you’re also the one who has to follow through.’ “

Davenport said the differing interpretations is why it’s so critical for leaders and other public figures to be aware of their expressions, body language and actions any time they’re in public, and to be careful when trying to generate such moments themselves.

“Everyone is over-analyzing everything. They are ‘thin-slicing’ every moment, and you’re either praised or you’re a pariah," he said. “What I tell my clients constantly is everything means something when it comes to body language. And what the person doing the body movement intends is a thousand times less important than what the audience perceives. You’re being watched at every turn.”

Jena McGregorJena McGregor writes on leadership issues in the headlines – corporate management and governance, workplace trends and the personalities who run Washington and business. Prior to writing for the Washington Post, she was an associate editor for BusinessWeek and Fast Company magazines and began her journalism career as a reporter at Smart Money. Follow